The reason the wings are stagnant when Lowry is on the floor is because they don't bother to makes cuts because they don't think Lowry will see them. Amir and now Ed understand perfectly that if they make cuts or roll to the basket Jose will get them the ball. That is the way basketball should be played. This does not happen for them when Lowry is at the point. Why make the cut if your PG is not going to deliver the ball?

Because even if you don't get the ball you'll get somebody else an easier shot. That's why.

After reading everyones responses and taking them all into careful consideration... I've come to the conclusion that you are all right and no matter how bad we suck, we will still all be die hard raptor fans no matter what. Only person I seem to be able to point my finger at is Dwayne Casey. Tired of hearing him blame players for the losses. COACH the *#;/':"--- team to win! there's damn well enough talent to win with this squad!

I think the differing perceptions about Calderon and Lowry have to do with how the issues at the wing and with the lack of offensive creativity flow through to the rest of the offense. When other guys are standing around, settling for long jumpers, or are unable to break down a defense, there are two options as a PG:

- Continue doing what you are supposed to do and try to grind through it (Calderon)
- Break off the offense and try to make things happen yourself (Lowry)

The result of the former will be less volatility, and against bad teams you might grind them away, but against good teams, that's a recipe for a non-embarrassing but near-certain loss. The result of the latter will be a lot more volatility, where you can lose to anyone and beat anyone.

Neither is a recipe for winning, but the problem is not at the PG position; it's the fact that the PGs are being put in that situation to begin with.

Edit:

To take this to its logical extreme: if Lowry was surrounded by Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Ray Allen, and Shane Battier, to pick four quality players who can all shoot and play offense, the hero ball thing would be an egregious monstrosity and he should be benched immediately.

However if Jose was surrounded by four guys who were all sub 35% shooters, he should take every single shot, and if he kept passing and deferring, he would be viewed as a fool and should be benched immediately.

The current situation is somewhere in the ugly middle, where you have just barely passable offensive players at many positions, meaning there's really no great answer, and both options are various degrees of bad. But my core argument here is that the PGs are the symptom, not the disease, and both the hero ball from Lowry and the need for Calderon's passing are a result of greater issues elsewhere. Blaming the PGs is blaming the best players for the flaws of the worst.

Lowry deserved the minutes he out played Jose. He was at least able to slow down Sixers run.

Jose was -4 on the night and Lowry was -5... Jose played against the starters almost the entire time he was out there and Lowry played against them only late.

Tim Chisholm writes:

Lowry’s refusal to play defense within the team concept also really hurt this team in the second half. A really disappointing effort.

and...

Lowry has been no better at corralling Jrue than Calderon, also, somewhat negating his perceived biggest distinction over Jose.

Look, I was hoping that Lowry would come here and hit big shots and take the keys and run with it. I am still hoping he does (and so does Casey, or there is no way he is playing as much as he did down the stretch last night), but please don't say that Lowry has outplayed Calderon... he flat out has not! Again, I want that to happen and I hope Calderon can be traded, but Jose has been the best player on this team over the last month or so. Lowry's game management down the stretch of games has been so bad that I want Calderon out there right now... and I have said before that Calderon is one of the worst clutch players.

Seems to me Lowry was brought in early to slow down Holiday. He did that fairly well at first but then seemed to get dispirited after a few calls he didn't like and then wasn't being effective on either end. I can't remember ever seeing Calderon just give up.

I want to know why Ross, who was 4for4 from 3, didn't touch the ball until the second to last play of the third.